Introducing Danny Faccinetti as Vice President of Oregon Food Bank

We are excited to announce Danny Faccinetti as the new Vice President of Oregon Food Bank. Danny succeeds Andrea Williams, who was named the new Oregon Food Bank President in December 2024.

Danny has worked in hunger relief in Oregon for nearly 20 years, most recently as Oregon Food Bank’s Director of Operations. Danny joined Oregon Food Bank in 2016 and has worn many hats across the organization, leading programming, compliance and operations work internally and with partners across the state. He brings to this role a close knowledge of food banking, a wealth of hands-on experience, a collaborative leadership style and a deep commitment to meeting the changing needs of communities facing hunger.

“There are a lot of negative narratives out there that create us versus them thinking,” Danny said. “We have an opportunity to erode that. Food is grown and handled and manufactured across our entire society, so everybody has a part in it. And everybody needs food. So it’s something people can come together around. There are real differences in people’s thinking about hunger relief efforts. But there are also values that connect people around the root causes of hunger that I think can transcend that. We have the opportunity to build a movement that is broad and bipartisan.”

As Vice President, Danny will support and work closely with Oregon Food Bank President, Andrea Williams. He will also support staff and increase collaboration as the organization adapts and responds to the growing hunger crisis and changes to food banking following COVID-19.

Danny’s work in hunger relief began at the Linnton Community Center, where he led programming for over a decade, including a weekly food distribution every Tuesday. There, he gained insight into the inner workings of food distribution and became familiar with Oregon Food Bank as one of 1,200+ partner agencies across the region. At Oregon Food Bank, he worked in several roles supporting regional food banks and partner agencies.

“Working with our partners, I’ve seen the transformative nature of food banking,” Danny shared. “I believe in what we’re doing. We serve the entire state and Southwest Washington, which is a super diverse place, and we have partners all over the region. We have the luxury of being connected to different parts of the community. That’s what gives us the potential to be successful long term.”

Danny’s time at Oregon Food Bank highlighted how equity is built from the ground up. He underscored that anti-hunger work means embodying those values outside of and within the organization:

“It’s important to understand where we’ve been in the past. People were underpaid for work that was seen as not skilled, when really, it requires a lot of skill to do that work. A big part of making things more equitable was recognizing that and increasing wages for staff on the front lines, which we did here at Oregon Food Bank. That’s important for so many reasons. When people are paid well and they have a voice, they can weigh in on decisions that are meaningful and important to them. There’s less turnover, less accidents, less inventory errors. The more equitable we are, the more likely we are to attract people who care about the mission.”

And he is deeply committed to creating trusting spaces for staff to inform his leadership and decision-making:

“Leadership to me is really about recognizing the leadership qualities in others and building context and process for representation in meaningful decision-making. It's also about accountability and creativity. The more I learn from others about any particular issue or project, the more my perspective is shaped. Sometimes I change my mind and other times I don’t. But meaningful opportunities for input always change something for the better.”

When asked what he envisions for the future of hunger relief, Danny pointed out the importance of addressing hunger at its roots and continuously improving how we provide food for people today:

“I think it looks like a reduction in poverty and the core drivers of hunger, which are racism, sexism, cissexism — the things that lead to the systemic inequities that create the conditions for poverty. The future of this work looks like working in coalition with other organizations and grassroots movements to make incremental concrete steps toward a more just and inclusive society. Passing the Food for All Oregonians bill in the Oregon legislature is a huge component of that, along with efforts toward racial justice education. It looks like continuing our work in our legislative arena to change laws. And continuing to refine how we distribute food, to do it with increasing excellence, and to make that experience as good as we possibly can for people who need food today.”